"Sweating Sovereigns" http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=TT18750220.2.20 A New Zealand newspaper dated 1875 copies an article from 'The Daily Telegraph' in Melbourne, about a man caught debasing sovereigns by 'sweating'. I suspect Melbourne stackers will especially enjoy the article, as I suspect one of the businesses mentioned in the article is still an on-going concern today.
That's some fine detective work on the sovereign sweater!!! Bit of a heavy handed sentence for swiping a sausage but.. 1 sausage between 3 strapping lads.
For noobs: "sweating" is the deliberate act of wearing coins by rubbing them together so that fine particles of metal come off which can be collected and sold.
pretty easy to google really http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_coin_debasement In the process of sweating, coins were placed in a bag and shaken. The bits of metal that had worn off the coins were recovered from the bottom of the bag.[5] Sweating tended to wear the coin in a more natural way than clipping, and so was harder to detect.[6]
Sovereigns sweated by approximately 20 grains each! Whoa, that's quite a bit! Especially as I think the AGW of a full weight Sovereign is 112.99 grains (0.2354 t oz). Regards Acorn
